


Diagnostic

by NancyBrown



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Vampires, goody bag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 04:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2374526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NancyBrown/pseuds/NancyBrown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martha meets the Ghost of Christmas Past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diagnostic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GVSpurlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GVSpurlock/gifts).



> Written for GVSpurlock's goody bag.

He looks like a second-rate vampire, or a stage magician who's lost his rabbit. He's bent over Martha's patient, and her first thought is that he's leaning in for a bite. Her mind's eye provides her with the image: this stranger ripping out the throat of the bleeding young soldier. Her feet can't carry her fast enough.

"Excuse me," Martha says, firmness and authority locked into her tone as she shoves her body between them. "Private Stewart needs medical attention."

The vampire backs away, his bushy eyebrows raised high. He's staring through her, into her. Martha's suddenly, inexplicably terrified. She doesn't back down.

"He has a parasitical infection," the vampire says. "The Xondrians use biological warfare as well as guns."

The way he says the last word clicks in her memory. The flicker of his clever eyes to the sidearm at her hip tells her the rest. She feels her own eyes grow wide, her pulse race. This is wrong. He's wrong, changed. "What happened to you?" 

The Doctor turns back to Pvt. Stewart. "The parasites are vulnerable to x-rays. A simple scan should cure him. You'll want to do the same to the rest of your patients."

"Doctor?" He's not answering her question. But he is helping her. "I'll order the x-rays immediately."

"Do that."

She can't stop herself. "Jack says you change faces."

He looks at her again. Wisdom, age, and sorrow meet her all at once, but the impression of 'vampire' returns even more strongly. "I change everything, Doctor Jones. Except my past mistakes." He grasps her hand. He's always cold but now he's like ice. Like a ghost come back to warn the living. She can feel the distant brush of his mind, and the sea of his regrets, but she isn't positive she can feel his fingers. This could be the Doctor, a Doctor, or this could be a desperate soul escaped from Hell, filled with centuries of sorrow. Martha doesn't know if there's a difference.

He doesn't tell her she was good enough. He doesn't tell her he's sorry for what she went through in his name. He doesn't waste his words on grovelling. This Doctor can't and won't ever say he's so sorry.

She knows. She nods. "I have a patient to attend to."

"Make them well, Martha. You are the doctor." And he's gone.


End file.
